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FBI: Sony Hackers Blew Their Cover

Updated 04.14.17 12:57PM ET / Published 01.07.15 12:36PM ET

KCNA

The hackers who breached Sony Entertainment employed Internet addresses “exclusively used” by North Korea, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday, revealing a new piece of key evidence in the investigation. Shane Harris reports Comey said that on a few occasions, the North Korean hackers let their guard down and failed to use so-called proxy addresses that masked their actual location. In those unguarded moments, the FBI was able to determine with “very high confidence” that the North Koreans were behind the attack, Comey said. The FBI has been under pressure to reveal more evidence in the Sony case after numerous cybersecurity experts have said that information disclosed thus far is thin and circumstantial. Comey, addressing those doubters, said that they didn’t have access to the sources of information the FBI possesses. Comey said he was reluctant to reveal more information for fear of tipping off American adversaries to U.S. intelligence-gathering techniques.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said earlier that Gen. Kim Youn Choi ordered the hack as head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau. “Kim was a four-star general in charge of the Reconnaissance General Bureau. The RGB is the organization responsible with the overseeing attack against Sony.”